#EngTips: IELTS academic writing task 1 (chart data)

Today, I’m going to give some tips about performing IELTS academic writing test. For you who have some additional tips, either based on your own experience or the tips and trick guidance you’ve read, are free to share it..

In this session, we will discuss planning the structure of the essay based on data chart. This might seem difficult, but I personally think that writing an essay from data chart is simpler than the others, such as maps and processes.

I read Barron’s Writing for The IELTS as a guidance. It suggests us to make some a list to determine and at the same time classify the data from the chart.

Firstly, we need to make a list that includes general information of the data, such as the object, the recorded time and place(s), and others.

Here is the illustration:

(Source: Barron’s Writing for The IELTS)

Title: Average daily sales, by number of servings

What (object): Average daily sales

When: winter and summer

Where: Vista cafe

Next step, you can make a comparison as well as the details from the object you have figured out.

For example:

Object comparison:

Median daily sales (serving) of foods and beverages in winter

Details:

The highest serving: hot coffee (above 70)

The second highest serving: soup (50)

Medium number of serving: salad and ice cream (25 for each item)

The lowest serving: ice coffee (below 5)

Median daily sales (serving) of foods and beverages in summer.

Details:

The highest serving: ice coffee (40)

The second highest serving: ice cream (35)

Medium number of serving: hot coffee (30)

Lowest number of serving: salad and soup (25)

From the details given, you can start writing your essay by comparing the data and also describing the details’ information (discussion). According to the example, you can compare the highest and the lowest food/drink serving in each season.

Lastly, make your conclusion. This part can be put either before the or after the discussion. Besides, you can write your conclusion by using the comparison information in general. For illustration, “Overall, hot coffee and soup are the most purchased items in winter while Ice coffee and ice cream reached the highest servings in summer.”

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